


Wish Upon a Star

by bryar6



Series: Don't Ever Look Back [1]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: 12th Century, Angst, Character Study, Fluff, Gen, I give you the fluff then make you hurt, Liam is Zoe's younger brother, Original Character(s), This isn't hurt/comfort it's like reverse, Whump, character backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27731923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bryar6/pseuds/bryar6
Summary: Zoe remembers the warm summer night centuries ago that her little world came crashing down, when magic was no more than a flicker of pink in her palms.
Series: Don't Ever Look Back [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028529
Comments: 8
Kudos: 9





	Wish Upon a Star

**Author's Note:**

> Liam here is probably 7 or 8, Zoe is 9, her mother in her 30's. I know that I'm kinda going off the deep end creating such an intricate story for her, lol, but this will become seriously important information in my chaptered fic, _Saudade_. 
> 
> (pardon my historical inaccuracies regarding the constellation names. It’s easier to use the 18th century stuff as opposed to trying and failing to find out what it was called back in the 12th. Usually I’m such a stickler for being correct in these things but I desperately wanted to mention the forgotten Toad constellation lol.)

Everything is bright, lit by the moon and the sea of stars overhead. It is perfect for chasing lightning bugs through the grass and capturing them in her hands, peering at their mysterious glowing bodies before releasing them into the air again. She is young, having not passed even a decade of life. She’d discovered her magic only some short months prior but hadn’t much time to explore it or do much beyond occasionally lighting a small fire or watching the miniature lightning on her hands. It was too dangerous and uncontrollable for her to handle for anything bigger than a spark. So instead, she still lives her life as any other child would.

“Zoe! Come here! I have a frog!” 

Zoe turns quickly at the sound of her name, long, wavy hair falling into her face. She grumbles and shoves it back behind an ear, lifts her dress and makes her way to her brother, the tall field grasses softly touching her arms. He’s small, even for his age, a little strange in light of their much taller parents. His mop of brown hair pops up between the grasses and he extends a small creature caught between his palms. 

“That’s not a frog, silly, that’s a toad,” she corrects, with all the self-righteousness that only an older sibling could command. Her brother scowls, in frustration at himself. 

“Oh. Yeah,” he says, gently returning it to the muddy earth from whence he’d taken it. It makes an indignant croak and hops off.

“It’s okay, you’ll get it one day,” Zoe assures him. He gives her a toothy grin at that, throwing his arms around her waist. She pats his head and messes with his hair, something that she'd picked up from her mother. 'A family thing,' as Mama liked to call it. 

“Which stars make the toad again?” he asks, one little hand pointed up at the glimmer of stars. Zoe guides his hand and aims it at a relatively indistinct set of pinpricks in the sky. 

“Right there, Liam. Though you really have to use your imagination to make it look like a toad, huh? It’s sometimes called Bufo.” 

Liam giggles. “I think Bufo looks like a frog.” 

Zoe snorts and grins, tickling his sides and only aiding his laughter. He shrieks in laughter, trying to pry her off. The two siblings topple into the grass, hands flailing harmlessly at each other. She finally gives up, flipping back and shoving him off. 

“Stop it, stop it, I want to look at the stars,” she protests. Liam sighs loudly and throws himself down beside her. The tall, dry grasses crinkle beneath him as he shifts a few times, grunting in discomfort. 

“You _always_ want to look at the stars,” he complains. Zoe rolls her eyes. 

“Well, Papa taught me all about the constellations. He sails on the ocean using the stars. They go all the way to the ends of the Earth!” Zoe gazes up at the stars, feeling that fond admiration for their beauty, hanging up in the sky so, so far away. She wishes she could tug that black-blue tapestry down and run her fingers through the stars as if they were minnows in a stream. She imagines that they would dash away from her fingers, sparkling and twinkling like the fishes do. 

“Will Papa go to the end of the Earth?” Liam's voice is quieter now and he’s turned his head to face her. His shockingly blue eyes bore into her with a trace of worry.

“Probably not. He doesn’t go very far.” Her eyes skim over the nearby constellations. Libra, Hydra on either side of Bufo, Felis behind Hydra, and Noctua, the owl, perched on the serpent’s tail. She lets her mind wander, retelling herself the stories of the stars. 

“Oh, good,” Liam replies, a little delayed. Zoe knows that he has a forgetful tendency, but she doesn’t mind repeating these things to him. Life, even at her young age, is already repetition. What she had gone through with Liam as he grew up, is now what she experiences with her other three young siblings. Over and over again. The stage where they cry and cry and must be carried everywhere, to crawling and bubbling, to walking, to talking nonsense, and then finally to when they would be able to help with the farm and explain their ailments. 

But she doesn’t mind. It gives her a sense of routine and place in the world. She needs not worry about what tomorrow brings, because she knows already that it will be the same as each one prior. Life is relaxed, a little too much so, if you asked her. Mama already spent half her time tugging Zoe down from the orchard trees or dragging her out of the stream, pulling her away from the cliffs and sternly informing her to be safer. Zoe had wrongly believed that she would be given a pair of tough trousers if she destroyed her clothes often enough. Apparently, there are dresses a-plenty no matter what she does. 

Not that she’s really a troublesome child, in her mind. She does what her mother says, helps with the children, and listens well. She rarely talks back and learns very quickly. Though, she has attempted to ride the oxen before, much to Mama’s disappointment. But she is a child, afterall. Life needs something to stir it up now and then. 

“Zoe?” 

“Yes, Liam?” 

“I will miss you when you become a mama,” he says, rolling into her side. She tucks her arm around him securely.

“Maybe I won’t become a mama. Maybe I’ll travel instead, I’ll sail on the sea like Papa, ride horses across the countryside, and climb all the mountains...one day I’ll go to the stars!” The two siblings giggle, amused by the impossibility of it all. Zoe knows there’s some neighboring farm boy that she’s supposed to marry one day, but she wants none of it. Her heart belongs to the skies and the world she has yet to discover, not any person. 

“Going to the stars is impossible,” Liam says, poking her arm. “You can’t fly!” 

“I wish I could,” Zoe answers, imagining what it would feel like to have a pair of beautiful, powerful wings gracing her back. She’d soar through the air and show Liam everything. How funny it must be to see the world from so high above, with the keen eyes of a bird. To feel the wind in one's face like the gales do on the cliffs, to float with the clouds. A beautiful dream.

“Make a wish on the stars, then!” Liam’s eyes are full of awe and wonder. “If you do, maybe the gods will give you wings!” 

“Oh, I don’t know, Liam,” she says, eyes shifting away from the skies and back to the grass around them. “I doubt they would see me as deserving.” 

“Please? Try? For me?” Her brother pleads heavily with his gleaming eyes, and she can’t help but sigh and tip her head to the heavens again. 

“Fine, fine. For you.” She breathes in deeply, fixing her eyes on the brightest star in the sky, mouthing the words to the little lullaby that Papa sang her as a babe. 

_Star bright, star light, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight._ She doesn’t form the words on her lips for the wish, instead thinking it to herself. Afterall, what right does she have to ask for a gift from the gods, when all she’s done all her life is trouble Mama? 

So she thinks of the wish instead. _Grant me a pair of wings, so that I can become my own person, to fly and share my love of the sky._ When she opens her eyes, the world is darker and fuzzier as she readjusts. 

“Did it work?” she asks, sitting up, reaching a hand around to her shoulders. Liam shakes his head fervently. His hand runs over her still-normal back. 

“No, try again!” Liam practically bounces with energy. 

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” she laughs, gently pushing him away. “Oh well. At least we tried, right?” 

“Aww,” he sighs. But he shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe one day they’ll show up, when you least expect it!” 

“Maybe,” Zoe says, admiring the stars once again. _Maybe one day._

“Zoe? Liam?” 

The two children sit bolt upright, looking at each other. Zoe shushes him. 

“Mama! We’re right here,” she calls back, standing up and patting off her clothes. She takes Liam’s hand and pulls him along with her, to meet her mother where she stands just off the steps of the house.

“It’s dark! Come back inside. It’s far too late for children to be outside, and much less so when we know the King’s knights are around lately. Especially unsafe for you, Zoe,” her mother scolds. Zoe rolls her eyes, earning her a slight pinch. 

“Mama, I know not to use my magic,” she growls, trying to tug her mother’s fingers away. “You don’t have to remind me.” 

“I’m just being careful. We have lost your cousins because of magic and the King.” But her mother’s face softens. “One day, maybe then you will find a place your magic can be used.” 

Zoe rolls her eyes again, this time doing it away from Mama’s line of sight. Mama freezes, causing Zoe and Liam to stiffen up beside her. Hoofbeats sound in the distance, growing louder. 

“Is that Papa come home?” Liam asks, bouncing on his toes. 

“I’m not sure,” Mama says, furrowing her brow. “He shouldn’t be back yet, but sometimes he is home early. Let me look. You two stay put.” 

Zoe notes that it is a few sets of hoofbeats, not one, which is a good sign. Papa never came home alone because they owned no horses. His crewmates are kind enough to lend him their horses on returning home. Liam taps her shoulder, eyes inquisitive. She shushes him with a finger, listening for Mama or Papa’s voices. 

_If it’s Papa’s, I’ll get to stay up and listen to all of his stories…_ she muses, smiling to herself. Those are the best nights. 

“Zoe! Liam! Go inside, now!” their mother shouts. 

“But wait, Mama!” Liam calls out, frowning deeply. Zoe shakes her head and drags her brother to the house. Liam smacks at her arm and struggles. 

“Liam! Stop it! You heard Mama!” Zoe hisses, her arms stinging from the slaps. Little tears slip down his face. 

“No, why isn’t she coming?” Liam presses, yanking backwards harder. 

“I don’t know!” Zoe’s grasp on her brother’s arm slips and he falls, arm snaking away. He leaps back to his feet before Zoe can grab him and scampers off. “Stop!” 

Zoe chases after, rounding the corner on his heels and stopping short when she realizes the sight before her. A stubby pony clad in the King’s colors stands there, a knight in mail perched up on it’s back. Behind him, two other mounted knights wait. Large scabbards hang from their hips, the leather a glaring red. 

“Zoe! Get inside!” her mother demands. But Zoe stands shocked, feeling pinned to the ground by the knight’s stare. She cannot see his eyes clearly in the dark, but she knows that they are fixed on her. 

“It’s her, isn’t it,” comes the grating voice. Her mother shakes her head, tears on her face, now, too. Liam clings to Mama’s dress, clutching so tightly his little hands shake. 

“No, please, she’s just a child, she has nothing to do with this war of yours,” Mama sobs, holding herself between the knight and Zoe. "She can't even use her magic."

 _Why has he come for me? Is it my magic? It must be._

The knight dismounts, walking around the horse and towards Zoe. She finally finds her feet and staggers backwards, tripping over her the uneven ground and falling onto her back. She scoots away, small rocks stabbing into her hands. 

“S-stop,” she stammers, holding a hand out. She knows it’s not much of a threat, for her magic is just as likely to hurt her as it is to ward off an attacker. She’s completely untrained and inexperienced. “Don’t come any closer! I’ll use my magic on you!” 

The knight laughs, a dark and cutting sound. He marches forward and grabs her arm, yanking her up, clearly undeterred. “King’s orders, that we take all with connection to magic to him.” 

Zoe screams out, hitting and pounding on his armor, but it makes no difference. Her blows simply glance off and her tiny frame is no match for his much larger form. Another knight has joined them, grabbing her free arm and holding her between them, an unnecessary reinforcement. She doesn’t dare use her magic out of fear and panic. 

“Mama!” she screams out, tears forming on her face. Her mother shakes her head, her usually soft features split by pain and torment. But she still says nothing. 

“Zoe!” Liam lunges for his sister now, held back by their mother, who has sunk to her feet. It’s then that Zoe realizes there is nothing that any of them can do. 

As the firm hands of the guards clamp down harder and drag her, kicking and screaming away, she has never wished more that there were a pair of wings between her shoulders. She throws her head back, praying to the gods now. _Not that you can hear me. But if you do, please, please do something. Don’t let them be taken from me. Don't let this be goodbye._

But nothing happens. Her plea goes unanswered. In her blurry vision, the constellations look like they’re crying alongside her, stars singing forlorn songs down to the earth as if they pitied that they had no hand in the workings of men. That where she stands is somewhere they do not reach. Mama's sobs and Liam calling her name, over and over, split the night, until they too fade into the distance. She lets herself go numb to it, eyes glossing over.

Zoe never looks back again. Her eyes stay focused on the cosmos until the dawn breaks and washes the stars away.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that was angsty, but there is definitely fluff to come, I apologize for leaving this off on a kinda sad note. However, the second chapter of Formal Attire is actually going to come sooner or later and it's relatively fluffy. Thanks for reading, as always~


End file.
